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JAL Mileage Bank Frequent Flyer Program

3 January 2017

Discover how you can earn and redeem miles when flying with Japan Airlines and its partners.

Japanese flagship airline Japan Airlines (JAL) is over 60 years old and has established itself as a world-class Asian carrier in partnership with the oneworld alliance. Its loyalty program is known as the JAL Mileage Bank (JMB), which allows frequent flyers to earn and redeem miles for a range of rewards. This page will explain how the program works, and how you can earn and redeem mileage rewards with JMB.

Navigating this guide

How to join the JAL Mileage Bank frequent flyer program

The JMB program is free to join, with no eligibility restrictions. To sign up, simply head over to the JAL website, follow the JAL Mileage Bank link and click “Enroll now”.

You will then be taken to a form which you’ll need to fill out with your personal and contact details. After you have completed and submitted this form, your JMB membership card will arrive within 2–4 weeks.

JAL Family Club

In addition to standard JMB membership, there is the option of joining the JAL Family Club (JALFC). The main highlight of this program is that it allows you to pool miles together with your family. These are its key features:

Eligibility. The “primary member” must be at least 12 years of age and live outside of Japan. There is no age limit on “family members”.

Restrictions. No more than nine members may form a single JALFC account, and family members must be related to the primary member, either as parents, a spouse, children, a spouse’s parents, or children’s spouses.

Fees. While there are no annual fees for this program, a registration fee of 1,000 frequent flyer miles applies. This is deducted upfront or when sufficient points are accumulated. Subsequently, a renewal fee of 1,000 miles will be automatically deducted every 5 years. Your membership will be cancelled if the account balance doesn’t permit this renewal deduction. A separate fee of 1,000 miles is also charged when changes are made to add a family member to the account (to be deducted immediately or when sufficient points have been accumulated).

Mileage benefits. You can earn bonus miles for flights, including 1,000 bonus miles for your first flight after membership enrolment, 1,000 bonus miles for your first flight after membership renewal, and 300 bonus miles per flight sector on eligible international flights and fares when you travel before 31 March 2017. Flights for the 300 bonus mile promotion must be to or from Japan, and you must register for the promotion before your flight to earn the miles.

Other benefits. Apart from special offers, gifts and discounts on purchases from JMB partner stores, JALFC also offers special relocation promotions catering for people moving to and from Japan. These include attractive miles bonuses earned on your relocation flight both ways, complimentary excess baggage, and baggage delivery service when relocating to Japan.

FLY ON program

The FLY ON program is exclusive to JMB members, and is designed for their “most frequent flyers”. Essentially, it’s a membership status program that rewards regular JAL flyers with travel benefits.

As a member, you can earn FLY ON points for eligible flights flown with JAL or its oneworld alliance airline partners (in addition to JMB Miles). However, you don’t earn FLY ON points for other expenditure that may still earn you JMB miles. Your FLY ON status is determined by the number of FLY ON points earned in the previous calendar year or by the number of qualifying flights taken in the previous year, based on flight fares and mileage.

JAL membership tiers

The more FLY ON points you earn, the higher your membership status will rise within the FLY ON program. Here are the details of each status level:

Earn bonus miles on flights (130% on JAL and American Airlines; 100% on British Airways; 100% on Iberia flights)

Diamond award tickets

Suspended mileage expiration

Inflight sales pre-booking (on JAL international flights)

Airline Pilot Experience flight simulation

JAL Totteoki-no-Ippin limited items

Prepaid gift card promotion at the Shilla Duty Free store in Seoul

JMB DIAMOND/PREMIER Service Selection available from 1 April of the year following status qualification (where options include flights, hotel stays, spousal benefits, merchandise or gifts for others)

How to earn JMB miles

Once you’re a JMB member, you can earn miles in the program by quoting your JMB membership number when booking any of the following:

Flights

Typically the most common way to earn miles in any frequent flyer program is by flying. With JMB, you can earn miles on eligible flights with both JAL and its airline partners. Mileage earned is calculated based on your ticket class, fare and flight sector, and will only be credited if the ticket is issued in your name.

Remember to quote your number when booking. You may also claim missing mileage within six months of your flight, but be ready to provide documentation including your boarding pass or ticket receipt.

Partner airlines

Miles earned on partner airlines accumulate at different rates. To find out more, visit the JAL website, scroll over “JAL Mileage Bank” in the drop-down menu, then click on “Flight Mileage” under “Accumulating Mileage”. Next, select your chosen partner airline to see more specific information. These are JAL’s partner airlines:

airberlin

American Airlines

British Airways

Cathay Pacific Airways/Dragonair

Finnair

Iberia

LAN

Malaysia Airlines

Qantas

Qatar Airways

Royal Jordanian Airlines

S7 Airlines

Srilankan Airlines

TAM Airlines

Air France

Alaska Airlines

Emirates

China Eastern Airlines

Bangkok Airways

Jetstar Japan

Hotels

You can earn JMB miles on hotel stays at over 15,000 participating hotels worldwide. Visit the JMB website to view periodic special offers. Mileage may be credited per night, per stay or based on your booking total. Certain group or discount rates are not eligible for earning mileage, so be sure to inquire about eligible rates when making your reservation.

Some hotels will also require that you join the hotel’s loyalty program in order to earn JMB points. For instance, you must be a Starwood Preferred Guest at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, a Marriott Rewards member at Marriott International or the Ritz Carlton, an IHG Rewards Club member at the InterContinental Hotels Group, and a Hyatt Gold Passport holder at Hyatt Hotel, to name a few.

To ensure that you earn your miles, present your JMB card when checking in at the hotel (and your hotel loyalty card where necessary), and state that you wish to earn mileage credit on your JMB account. When checking out, make sure you receive a hotel receipt made out in your name. This receipt should be kept until your miles have been credited (within 2–3 months). If your account doesn’t reflect the miles earned after that time, you may claim your missing miles, but the process differs depending on which hotel you stayed at. Visit the JAL website, scroll over “JAL Mileage Bank” in the drop-down menu, click on “Hotel Mileage” under “Accumulating Mileage”, and then “How to request post-stay hotel credit” to find out more specific information.

Earning miles with JMB partners

You may also earn mileage by using the services of any JMB partner company. When doing so, make sure to provide your JMB membership number because retroactive mileage credit isn’t allowed except in special cases. Miles are credited in about 2–3 months and cannot be earned on discounted prices. Note that some of these partner services may not be available when you live in Australia. Partner categories include:

JAL baggage delivery service. You can earn 50–100 miles per piece when you get your baggage delivered to or from the airport in Japan with JAL’s baggage delivery service.

Car rental. JMB car rental partners include Avis, Hertz, Dollar Rent A Car, Budget, Alamo and Smile Rental Car. You can earn miles per day or per rental, and also enjoy special JMB member discounts.

Coat storage. JAL ABC provides a coat storage service if you wish to leave your coat at the airport while you’re in Japan. Earn 50 miles per piece you leave with them.

Dining. You can earn miles while you eat too, with any of JAL’s restaurant partners in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Gift shopping and duty free shopping. When shopping at the airport, you can also earn miles for your spending. This is available at JAL Shopping America, Lotte Shopping Mall Gimpo Airport and The Shilla Duty Free in Korea.

Jewellery and miscellaneous goods. Earn miles when you buy jewellery from Thai jewellery design partner stores, near equal and Nihondo Jewelry, with an earn rate of THB100=1 mile.

Lifestyle. JMB members can earn miles for life’s necessities in various countries, including aircon installation in Singapore, logistics in Hong Kong, banking in Korea, and dry cleaning and real estate in Thailand.

Online shopping. You can earn JMB miles when shopping online with a range of retailers around the world, including Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue or Bloomingdale’s in the US, Farfetch and Hanna Andersson in Japan, and asos in the UK.

Redeeming mileage through the JMB frequent flyer program

When you have accumulated enough miles, they can be redeemed for rewards including:

Air tickets. Miles can be redeemed for JAL Group Airlines domestic award tickets, JAL international award tickets, or partner airline award tickets (list of partners can be found under the “Flights” section above). To give you an idea of the cost, international flight rewards start from 7,500 miles one-way. Meanwhile, an economy return trip from Australia to Japan would cost 40,000 miles.

Fare class upgrades. You can trade in your miles for flight upgrades on JAL international flights. Upgrades are not available on domestic or codeshare flights operated by other airlines, and certain fare types are also not eligible for upgrade. Seats are limited, so make sure you book early.

Coupons for in-flight purchases. Your miles may be redeemed for coupon awards, which can be used to make full or partial payment for in-flight purchases on JAL or JTA (Japan Transocean Air) flights where available. You can also get coupons for in-flight Wi-Fi plans on JAL international and domestic flights.

Charity donations. Give your miles to a good cause with JAL Charity Miles, where you can support chosen projects periodically.

JAL Next Athlete Miles. This is JAL’s project to help support future athletes and their training, and you can donate your miles to help further the promotion and development of next-generation athletes in Japan. JAL matches each donated mile with one mile of their own.

Note that there are some other reward categories that exclude members from Australia, which we have omitted from this article.

How to redeem JBM frequent flyer miles

You can redeem your miles for rewards using the following steps:

Go to the JAL website and scroll over “JAL Mileage Bank” in the drop-down menu.

Click on “Redeeming Mileage”. You will then be taken to a page with the different redemption options.

Select the type of redemption you wish to make and follow the prompts to “Request a reward”.

Even though a few of its features exclude members living outside of Asia, the JAL Mileage Bank program can be a worthy choice if you regularly fly to Japan. Otherwise, you might wish to consider joining the frequent flyer program of one of the other oneworld alliance airlines, which would still allow you to earn frequent flyer rewards for JAL flights but may offer more flexibility. When deciding which frequent flyer program to join, research all your options and compare them in relation to your personal lifestyle and travel habits before deciding on the one that will best suit you.

Frequently asked questions

There are Japanese credit cards linked to the JMB program, but you have to reside in Japan and have a Japanese bank account to own one. Unfortunately there are no affiliated Australian cards that let you transfer rewards points to the program at this time.

Currently, flight upgrade awards are only available on JAL international flights.

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37 Responses

LloydAugust 9, 2017

I recently flew 2 roundtrips on JAL but did not enter my JMB membership number with my reservations. Can I still get credit for these flights, and if so, how do I do it?

My question is this; both me and my father are JMB members, I however have quite a bit more points than he has. If I would like to redeem my points for tickets for both of us, can I nominate him as a companion like on AsiaMiles and SQ, or would I first need to join the Family Club to be abe to redeem flight awards for him as well?

There are many ways on how you can redeem your collected miles. You can exchange them for various benefits, including air tickets, a class upgrade, and coupons which you can use toward in-flight sales items. Please refer the link I sent to your email for further information on redeeming your JAL FF points.

Hi, my girlfriend is Japanese and member of Jal, next december we’re going to Japan together and I wonder if she can use hers award tickets for domestic flights for both of us, she has plenty of points and we’re gonna fly together anyway.

Although JAL Mileage Bank offer a ‘family club’ for members to pool points or nominate points to be used by family members, this is only available to family members. Although the terms and conditions state that they can be used by a spouse, this generally only refers to married couples.

I am flying Japan Airlines may 25 2015 and june 8 2015
and would like to sign up for there rewards program.
Can someone call me to walk me through the process. I cannot find how to join on line. Or tell me where to go on line.
Thank you Bruce
This is my first experience on japan Airlines

When flying with Japan Airlines, you’ll earn miles on the following fares:
- F class earns you 150% of actual miles flown
- J class earns you 100% of actual miles flown
- Y class earns you 100% of actual miles flown

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